Sawdust making machine

[Jack the unknowing]

Does anyone know where to find a machine the uses saws to make sawdust?  The Japanese make one, but I can't find a US distributor.  It looks like this.

http://www.youtube.com/v/5Q8TjtaCyXE&hl=ja_JP&feature=player_embedded&version=3

The Japanese company is Morishita Machine Co.

[hackberry jake]

It would be cheaper just to buy sawdust from people on the ff. I have a rather large pile ill give you, and it grows almost every day.

[Magicman]

Welcome to the Forestry Forum.  The machine and your question about it causes me to wonder?  How about telling us a bit about yourself and your interests.

[bandmiller2]

Welcome Jack, most of us here have sawdust making machines, with boards as a byproduct. Frank C.

[bandmiller2]

Seriously Jack, you don't mean wood shavings do you?I've never seen or heard of a sawdust making machine most are trying to make as little as possible. Frank C.

[Jack the unknowing]

I am really a material handling consultant but I have a client who thinks that I know everything.  They need sawdust in their production process so the need a constant supply.  They are working with a mill who expects to be able to give them enough as a byproduct of the lumber production, just as others have suggested.  They have told the client that if demand for the boards are low, they may not have enough of the right kind of sawdust (Oak), but, if they had the machine, would cut log into sawdust.  Now I have to find the machine.  Since I know nothing about forestry, I came to the experts.

[okmulch]

If you have low grade boards or cutoffs, you can run them through a shaving machine and then through a granulator.  Are they looking for a certain size particle?  What quantity per day is required?

[Magicman]

And you will probably need a Debarker also.  I imagine that they will have a low percentage requirement for bark.  Anyway that is just another question to ask.

[Ron Wenrich]

Morbark used to have a machine called a duster.  You ran slabs through it and it run them through a debarker head.  It was supposed to produce sawdust, but it was more on the lines of a hogged fuel.  I think a lot will depend on the end use you're looking at.

If you look on down the line of the attached video, you'll see that what the outcome of this is bedding for hogs.  Particle size isn't quite as important as it is in some other uses.  You might be able to get away with a hog and different size of screens to produce a smaller product.  Instead of using boards, you probably could get away with using chips.  Pallet boards are in the line of $40/ton where chips are more like $30-32.  Sawdust from another vendor would drop to about $20 and there is no additional processing.

I've done some consulting at the material end, but it was mainly for the use in burning.  Sawdust was mixed with chips to produce a cheaper fuel.  One thing I always advised any clients was to steer away from one major supplier of any product.  Too many variables that can affect their production which then affects yours.  

[Jack the unknowing]

It has to be Oak, no bark.  The particle size seems to be pretty wide, no needles and no dust.  They use it to grow mushrooms.  As I said, they are working with a mill that will have this machine.  The mill has the debarker

[Ron Wenrich]

Campbell's tried growing shitake mushrooms for a line of soup, must be about 20 years ago.  They tried using dust, but eventually went to using white oak bolts.  Red oak didn't grow as well.  They sawed them in half, and used the bolts to raise the mushrooms.  My guess is that you're trying to grow shitake.  We have lots of mushroom farms in the area using horse manure and straw for the standard mushroom.

If particle size doesn't matter, I'd think about chips and then use either a hog or a bale buster to reduce the material further.  You can screen out the material that's off size.

Is this beyond the experimental stage to where its a viable business?

[Jack the unknowing]

It is in Japan.  The process as it is apparently done in Japan uses sawdust.  I'm guessing at some stuff because the are very secretive about the process.

[paul case]

we have a mushroom farn in miami ok. they use chicken litter and wheat straw for beds. that place and anything downwind of it at times smells awefull. the funny part is that there are 3 large casinos on the same 3 mile stretch of road as the mushroom farm. I think every casino needs a mushroom farm!!! :D ;D  pc

[Nantahala Forest Products]

Here is a link http://www.hammermills.com/advanced-search/sawdust for a company in NY that carries hammer mills for producing sawdust.

[Satamax]

It has to be Oak, no bark.  The particle size seems to be pretty wide, no needles and no dust.  They use it to grow mushrooms.  As I said, they are working with a mill that will have this machine.  The mill has the debarker

It is for shitake? Or have they found the way to cultivate truffle on a big scale without the real trees around?

[Ron Wenrich]

After doing some research, it seems that the Japanese also raise quite a few specialty mushrooms other than shitake.  Many are grown in substrates with a base of sawdust with other additives.  Some of it may be rice husks or other organic material.

Are they going to be growing them stateside or in another country? 

[logloper]

To make wood heating pellets they make chips and then run them through a hammer mill to make sawdust. The sawdust is then ran through the pellet mill.

[Jack the unknowing]

They will be grown in the US

[Kansas]

What part of the U. S.? Think it would be easier to find a number of mills that debark and cut oak. Missouri and the Ozarks come to mind. Also if type of oak matters. I know they have some big tie mills there.  It just seems a lot more cost efficient to gather sawdust from a number of sources. Heck, we cut oak 1 or two days a week. Granted, we don't generate that much. But,if we had a good market, I wouldn't think twice about isolating that from other sawdust. The key is transportation. I hope they would put it in an area with a lot of sawmills that cut oak.

That leaves Kansas out.

[Ron Wenrich]

When we're up and running, we can easily do a trailer load of oak in a couple of days.  Many mills here in the east can do the same, and some do much more.  Secondary processors use a lot of the dust as steam for the kilns.  You just have to fight the pellet plants for the dust.

I would think the eastern US would be closer to the specialty markets.